


Re-Entry

by The_Elephant_in_the_Pride_Parade



Series: Unbowed, Unbent [2]
Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: C7 exists?, Canon Compliant, Chakotay is confused, Gen, Homecoming, The welcome KJ deserves, j/c if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-25
Updated: 2019-03-25
Packaged: 2019-12-07 03:42:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18229433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Elephant_in_the_Pride_Parade/pseuds/The_Elephant_in_the_Pride_Parade
Summary: The homecoming KJ deserves, as canon compliant as possible, with some hints of J/C from a very confused Chakotay (why he's dating 7 I can't possibly explain)





	Re-Entry

**Author's Note:**

> Slightly out of order from the rest of the series I'd like to post because this was short and it's done. Enjoy :)

_ Re-Entry _

In Cargo Bay One, she conducted a final crew inspection. Everyone’s bags were finally packed, ready to be transported directly to their homes or temporary quarters. Everone had arrived on time, in full dress uniform, pips and rank bars freshly polished. There wasn’t a hint anywhere that this had once been two separate crews. Kathryn was relieved, and reminded herself that it wasn’t just a show. She had been assured they’d all be treated equally whether they’d come to the Delta Quadrant on  _ Voyager _ or the  _ Val Jean _ on the  _ Equinox _ . That was the most important thing – they would  _ all  _ be welcomed home.

But it utterly failed to quell the irrational butterflies in her stomach.

Finally, she stood at the cargo bay doors with the whole crew behind her. Seven, hanging back to Harry’s left looked quite pale. Naomi, clinging tight to Icheb on one side and her mother on the other was hiding her nerves only marginally better. Looking at them, Kathryn could admit she felt the same anxiety.

Chakotay finished his part of their final inspection and walked to her, averting his eyes from Seven when he passed her. Just two days ago Seven had approached him quite confidently and declared that she was glad she would have him to disembark at her side. And he’d been utterly perplexed by the assumption. Of course he would walk out with Kathryn.

The ensuing discussion – about what stage of their relationship would be proper to commence escorting duties and how there was no specific regulation that a First Officer necessarily disembark beside his Captain – had left him with a headache.

_ “It’s only been three and a half dates,” he’d told her. “And it’s not about regulations. I’m just supposed to be with Ka-with the Captain.” _

Then Seven, put out, had proposed asking Kathryn if she could confirm that Chakotay need not be beside her for the disembarkation, or at least approve Seven borrowing him. At that point Chakotay’s brain had jumped to red alert and he’d shut down the conversation swiftly. He was not ready to complicate their return with his still-new relationship. And all together quite confused by his feelings about the whole thing.

Even now, Seven made to step towards him, but Chakotay shook his head.  _ Not now _ . Harry was next to her. Harry, Naomi, Icheb and Wildman. They’d do just fine as her support.

The woman he ought to be beside was the woman at the front of the cargo bay. Chakotay listened to the Captain’s last instructions to her crew and saw her tugging the sleeves of her dress uniform, the only hint at her hidden nerves.

A revolving door of captains’ and admirals’ comm-calls had kept Kathryn in her ready room nearly round the clock since they’d burst back into the Alpha Quadrant. Medical clearances had all been approved, the landing permits and the re-entry itself had gone off without a hitch this morning. The Maquis would not be arrested upon setting foot on Earth and the decisions about the  _ Equinox  _ crew would be made after mandated leave and debriefings had wrapped up. It had taken only days to get everything in order, but they had seemed by far the longest days of the whole journey: cooped up on board the ship with Earth in sight and tantalizingly out of reach, it continued to feel unreal that Terran soil lay just on the other side of the cargo bay doors.

Chakotay watched Kathryn tug at her sleeves again. She was doubtless waiting for the other shoe to drop. He wondered, as he watched her survey the state of the crew in the cargo bay, if she wasn’t also looking for some tell that would reveal their mad return adventure to be some trick of dreams or alien manipulation.

Admittedly, he was feeling a little bit of it himself. One look at their crew – getting antsy as they waited for approval to leave the ship – suggested the feeling was a shared one. It wouldn’t feel real until Earth was solid and tangible beneath their feet.

Kathryn’s eyes found his as he stepped up to her. He raised his hand at the ready to release the cargo bay doors. They were just waiting for the all clear from Starfleet security.

She looked pale – he could count the freckles standing out on her face. He reached down and grabbed her hand, sweaty. He squeezed it. “You know, it’s not too late to high tail it back to the Delta Quadrant,” he murmured. He got a nervous laugh out of her.

“I’ll pass,” she said.

Her comm badge interrupted his reply. “ _ Patterson to Captain Janeway” _

“Go ahead, Admiral.”

_ “We’re ready for you, Katie. Don’t take too long” _

The comm badge chirped as the Admiral cut communication. Kathryn took a centering breath.

Giving her hand another squeeze, Chakotay leaned in, not caring if the crew were whispering behind them. He put his lips close to her ear. “Unbowed, unbent”

She nodded, her back straightened, mouthing the end of the phrase herself. She released his hand. “Do it, Commander.”

He activated the release for the cargo bay doors.

They groaned, and the whole room shuddered under Earth’s gravity as they lowered towards the ground, letting in the excited shouts and the flashes of holo-imagers from outside. Whistles and orders from security mingled with press and family calling out as sunlight streamed in. The Captain and Commander both had to shield their eyes from the brightness.

As soon as the ramp shuddered against the soft grassy lawn of the Presidio, Kathryn strode through into the sunlight. He was right at her side.

The cheering and the shrieks of joy were deafening; the sun and the flashing of the imagers, blinding as Captain Janeway led them outside. The commotion overwhelmed even the beat of 150 pairs of boots falling into step behind her.

It was all so  _ green _ .

The Captain,  the Commander, and the  _ Voyager _ crew walked out into the bright late autumn day, stunned by the crisp smells in the air. Kathryn sneezed as the coolness of it hit her nose.

It smelled real…

She linked her hands behind her back and tapped her thumb against her palm.

It seemed real…

The cacophony of cheering, shrieking, sobbing…. Over the din, people shouting: _“Let them through!” “Do You See Him?” “Captain! Smile!” “Stay back.”_ _“How does it feel to be back?”_

It… sounded real….

Kathryn tried to keep her eyes on the stage up ahead rather than on the families. She caught glimpses of blond, black, brown, and grey hair. But mainly she tried to keep her eyes on the stage, she had to ascertain its veracity. It all looked like far too many bells and whistles to be a Starfleet press conference. There were large, new flags lining the back of the stage: the Federation’s, and one for every world represented amongst her crew. There was a whole line of admirals like an honor guard leading up the steps to the stage and the podium… off to the left that looked like Owen Paris with….

Kathryn didn’t notice her feet had stopped short as her eyes caught the shocks of purple-dyed hair braided in with strawberry blond locks. The ostentatious style belonged to a woman shouting and waving right next to the stage, in the only group of civilians out ahead of the red velvet barrier, she could see the wide white grin even across the Presidio. The woman was beaming… at her.

Her attention caught, Kathryn didn’t notice her crew stopping behind her, too busy staring at the blond woman with her purple streaked braids and the toddler balanced on her shoulders, covering her ears, her hair a strikingly familiar red.

There were two older boys standing with them… with an unknown woman. And clinging to Phoebe – the woman who looked like she  _ could be  _ Phoebe – was an old woman…  _ so  _ old. Her hair was completely white, clinging to the Phoebe-look-a-like’s arm. Too old to possibly be….

“Mom?”

She felt Chakotay’s hand on her back. “Kathryn?”

It all… looked real. She took a deep breath of the autumn air again. Swallowing to relieve the dryness in her throat.

“Captain!”

She jumped, looking left and responding immediately to her title. She tore her eyes away from the woman who looked like Phoebe, and the woman who looked too old to be Gretchen Janeway, and saw it was a security officer addressing her. He was waving her onwards towards the podium set up on the stage. “We want to get you all up there before they get really impatient,” he said, seeming harried.

Right. Right.

Her crew was feeling just as spellbound by the roar of cheers and crying and camera flashes. It looked real. It smelled real. It sounded real. It _ seemed _ real….

They had all come to a halt, fanning out behind their command team, just as struck by the sensations and the familiar strangers leaning over the ropes….

The tension and protocol gave way with one word, one shout that cut through the din just as the caller broke through to the front of the crowd, too thin and nimble for anyone to stop him. He leapt over the ropes and dashed forwards, his voice cracking as he shouted – “ _ PAPI! _ ”

“ _ Mi Hijo?!” _

The overwhelming scene faded out, as all their attention fell on the boy. He dashed right past the senior officers, crashing into Mike Ayala, who recovered from his shock in time to catch his son, and promptly fell to his knees. “¿ _ Estas vivo?”  _ Mike clung to his son, whom for the past three years he had thought lost at the Maquis base camp, who had been listed among the missing. He looked out into the crowd. “ _ Wendy? Rosie?” _

“ _ FRANCISCO AYALA!”  _ Mike’s head snapped to the left as they all looked at the woman standing just beyond the edge of the ropes, and the tall young girl stepping hesitantly over the line, not as sure as her brother of the man she remembered only from pictures.

Mike made no attempt to hide his tears as he stood and reached out to her, Francisco still clinging to his side.

“They weren’t on Telvik’s Moon!” Chakotay murmured. “Starfleet found them and got them all the way to Earth…” he looked more closely at the crowds. “Do you think they....”

He broke from Kathryn’s side, scanning the crowd. He cupped his hands over his mouth. “ _ SEKAYA!” _

_ “CHAKOTAY!” _

She appeared from the crowd a bit further down than Mike’s son,  ducking past a security guard and waving, motioning for someone else to follow her. A teenage boy – as tall and broad as Chakotay with the same tattoo on the same side of his face…

Chakotay looked frozen. That couldn’t be Pakal! Spirits, his nephew had barely been 10 when….

He ran to them, the vision of them blurrier the closer he got. He barely heard Sekaya’s shock at his grayed hair before he had reached the two of them and crushed them close.

It was a fool of a security officer who would try to stop the mob of families after that. Starfleet security wisely decided that containing the eager press was perhaps the more manageable task.

Families poured out onto the grass, heedless of the planned procession to the stage, all calling out to loved ones.

“Sammie!”

“Momma!”

“Harry-bear!”

The crew broke ranks, streaming out ahead of their Captain into the crush of the crowds as a chaos of joy spilled onto the Presidio. Kathryn Janeway stood not twenty paces from the ship, still rooted to the spot, watching it all.

She watched Naomi Wildman reach out to touch the forehead ridges of the Kaatarian man who was kneeling and crying, as he held tight to Sam Wildman’s hand…. The older brother who scooped both Delany twins into his arms and had them both crying on his shoulders…. Ayala who had walked to nine year old Rose and his wife at the barrier edge and was kneeling down in a huddle with his children. At Chell embracing the thin purple spotted old Bolian who could only be his father….

“Captain Janeway.”

Still dazed she looked to her left and found herself facing a Vulcan woman who looked shockingly older than she had when Kathryn had last seen her eight years before. T-Pel reached out and shocked her by running her hand across Kathryn’s cheek.

“You kept your promise to me.”

Tuvok stood just behind her, not crying, but not quite as composed as usual. He held a curious Vulcan toddler in his arms, a granddaughter who was tracing the lines of his face while his 4 adult children stood solemnly close by.

“I did…” why was T’Pel still brushing her fingers across her face? “I did.” Her fingers were wet.

“I never quite understood the range of human emotions,” T-Pel said softly. “Forgive me Captain. But there’s no need for such sadness today.”

_ Sadness _ ?

Tuvok came forward then, shaking his head and letting his granddaughter play with his finger. “Do you need a moment, Captain?”

She opened her mouth to ask why and found she couldn’t speak. Her words were blocked by a lump in her throat and she suddenly realized Tuvok and T-Pel were getting quite blurry.

She reached up to where T-Pel was wiping her face and found the wet trails coming down and soaking into her dress uniform.

T-Pel’s hand was cool and her eyes bright despite her composed face. Her touch extended her thoughts to Kathryn, her feelings: warm, undisciplined joy; gratitude; even a twinge of disbelief.

It looked real. It sounded real. It smelled real. It seemed real….

“I – I….”

Kathryn drew in a shuddering breath and felt T-Pel step back from her. The poor Vulcan must be quite befuddled and uneasy at this ridiculous emotionality.

Tuvok had come up close to her, his hand wiped her face as T-Pel’s had. She put her hand on his shoulder, eyes still riveted on the joy unfolding in the crowd ahead of them.

“There’s no need to worry for my Captain,  _ T’hy’la _ ,” Tuvok said. “This is one of those occasions where humans can feel emotions that are… hard to qualify.” He rubbed her back. Why was he rubbing her back? Why was his hand shaking?

She tried to speak again, to ask, but the words were still stuck. She tried to scan the crowd again, to see if it still looked real or if it would vanish as it had in so many dreams. Her heart pounded as she realized how blurry they had all become. Was the illusion about to melt away. It had to be real, didn’t it? It still smelled real, sounded real, seemed real....

“Tuvok? Don’t tell me she’s trying to hide in the ship.”

“That would be highly illogical, Commander, but I do think your assistance would be welcome.”

“ _ Kathryn _ .”  Chakotay was in front of her, his hands too wiped her face. Then he stepped close to her left side, arm sliding around her back, hand closing around her arm. He waved someone closer to them “They got my sister and my nephew to Earth,” he said, joy radiating from him. “Sekaya, Pakal… this is my…  um Captain Kathryn Janeway … she’s the reason we’re home.”

“The Commander should take credit for the return as well,” Tuvok inclined his head. “As well as the four shuttles he lost along the way”

Chakotay laughed and squeezed her and she saw his sister come close and embrace her. Kathryn’s breath hitched and she tensed and trembled at the force of the unexpected hug as Sekaya crushed her close.

“I thought I would lose him to the Cardassians,” Sekaya sniffed. “And he’s home and he is happy and has all his limbs still attached to him.” She pulled back, wiping her tears, and kissed Kathryn’s cheek. “Thank you for keeping the last part of my family safe.”

“Y-your…um”

Damn it, why couldn’t she talk? She cleared her throat, fumbling to rub the blurriness from her eyes. The world cleared up a little. The wet trails on her cheeks were the cause. She moved to wipe them away and felt her hand shaking against her skin.

“I am concerned you may be in shock, Captain.”

“She’s  _ fine, _ ” Chakotay’s warm voice was in her ear as his arm rubbed up and down her arm. He bent to catch her eye. He has his concerned smile on his face “It’s over. It’s alright.”

Why was  _ everyone  _ comforting her?

“If it is overwhelming for us I cannot imagine what it feels like to you all.” Sekaya murmured.

“Perhaps we should find a path to the podium that goes behind the crowd?” Tuvok said.

Chakotay was nodding. “Yes, Kathryn come on let’s….”

“No.” she found her voice at last, raspy though it was, and put a hand on Chakotay’s chest as he tried to pull her away. “No. I want to see.”

She stepped forwards, feeling the group of them and especially Chakotay walking with her. Her eyes focused on all the crying families. There was Harry bent over his stout, grandmother, both parents huddled close. There was Henley… on one knee, proposing to Nicoletti… there was an elderly woman with pale blond hair cut in a sharp bob reaching out to Seven as Icheb urged her forwards.

“It’s real….?” Kathryn rasped as they walked.

Chakotay’s hand found and squeezed hers. “No 8472 simulation,” he murmured. “Not a telepathic Venus fly trap. Not a temporal anomaly. Not a dream.” His thumb tapped her palm. “It’s not a dream”

The families were looking at her now. At her and them and… and Tom and B'Elanna with Miral and Harry were urging them back, clearing a path. Someone was cheering. Many people were cheering she looked left and right at all of them as she walked and saw her crew saluting and their families cheering, clapping, reaching out for her….

“You did this,” Chakotay murmured. “This is your day, Kathryn. You got them home.”

The podium was closer now; the mass of families, thinning out. Tom and B'Elanna and Miral had re-joined the Senior Staff in their places to the left. Harry was walking as quickly as he could to join them, his mother still clinging to his arm. The stage was ahead….

And there in front of the two lines of admirals standing before the steps was a short, rail thin old woman, the same one who’d been holding Phoebe (the woman who  _ looked  _ like Phoebe)…

Just like this woman looked like Mom. Hair too white. Face too lined, body to thin and yet… a familiar smile was peeking out behind the hands she had pressed together before her mouth. She wore an unfamiliar ring on her left hand but the same old rings on a chain around her neck. And her eyes, welling with tears, were the same bright blue….

Kathryn was in disbelief right up to the moment Gretchen Janeway’s hands left her face and stretched to meet her. She walked the last step to Kathryn, hands grasping for her shoulders and pulling her close, enfolding her in a tight embrace. “ _ Katie _ !”

Her breath hitched as the familiar perfume assaulted her senses and the familiar warm hands clutched desperately to her jacket as Gretchen’s tears mingled with her own.

“You got home.” Gretchen was crying. Kathryn couldn’t tell which of them was trembling. “Oh thank god you got home.”

It felt real. She squeezed Gretchen closer, trembling in her arms and saw over her shoulder Phoebe – it really was Phoebe – sidle up to them. The young child who’d been on her shoulders was now balanced on her hip.

“Finally got around to us did you,” Phoebe said as Gretchen welcomed her into their embrace. She bounced the little girl on her hip. “So for the record I thought you were dead don’t let this go to your head”

“ _ PHOEBE ELIZABETH!” _

Phoebe grinned and lifted the red haired girl a little higher. “This is Kathryn,” Phoebe giggled. “Kathryn is your Auntie Katie.”

What little breath was in her lungs left her in a sob or a laugh, she wasn’t entirely sure. Kathryn reached out to brush her nieces hair… and flinched as the little girl shrank back from her.

_ Real _ . She recovered quickly, wiping her face again and looking at Phoebe. “At least it isn’t Aunt Kathy”

“Um, no. Eww. Why would we call you that. Anyways, sorry they’re shy. It’s the crowd, I think.” She was gesturing towards the stage at the two boys, six, Kathryn recalled from one of her letters, who had lingered there, clinging to the woman who must also be their mother.

“You really got married.”

“Why the surprise!” Phoebe chided. “Honestly, you people”

She hiccupped. Kathryn suddenly felt herself pulled against Phoebe, and squeezed her sisters shaking shoulders.

“You cut your hair!” Phoebe mumbled. “Why would you ever? It was gorgeous!”

“This is more practical,” Kathryn said. Her voice was still annoyingly raspy.

She saw Owen then, smiling at her, and Patterson looking as close to tears as she imagined the man could get. Owen had Miral in his arms again and Mrs. Paris was hugging her son and his wife and B'Elanna looked to be tolerating it all marvelously….

“I… we should get up there,” Kathryn said. “And then….”

“Yes, go, go. And then I’m taking you right home missy. And you’re not leaving my sight for the next 7 years.”

“Sounds perfect,” Kathryn sniffed and found thankfully that Phoebe had a handkerchief and had shoved it at her. She looked around. Chakotay and Tuvok were still there, waiting, Chakotay’s eyes looked suspiciously bright. She pulled away from her family and walked to the podium, Chakotay falling into step just to her left. She heard the chatter behind her and saw the imagers close to the stage flashing and Patterson standing before her.

She walked to him and brought herself to attention, feeling awfully out of practice. It felt truly bizarre….

“At ease, Captain.” Admiral Patterson grinned. “Katie, we weren’t expecting you back so soon.”

“Apologies, Sir.”

“Did you work the kinks out of that bio-neural circuitry?”

“Yes sir, I have a brilliant chief engineer to thank,” and she turned and waved to B'Elanna, who stepped forwards and saluted, ostensibly for the admiral, though her eyes flicked quickly back to Kathryn.

“Lt. Paris-Torres, I presume?” Patterson looked positively merry. “Yes Owen has had quite a lot to say about you.” He motioned for her to relax her salute and turned to survey the holo-imagers and crowd below the stage. Her crew had gotten to the front now, all the senior staff were up on the stage with her. And Kathryn got a shock as the Fleet Admiral stood from a chair on the far right with the Federation President. She found herself trembling as she saluted and found that the Fleet Admiral and the President had come forwards and reached out for her hand.

But not Chakotay’s hand, she noticed, thought Patterson heartily shook his. She felt the disbelief receding now. Real. It was real. They were home.

The Maquis needed signed pardons, back pay, permanent commissions… She looked out at her crew. They all needed somewhere to go. Some needed to find their families. She found Mike Ayala and saw for the first time the blond man holding his wife… some of them needed to make new families….

She still had work to do. Kathryn held on to the thought and used it to put a bit of steel back into her spine.

As the Fleet Admiral moved to the podium to introduce the President and begin the whole affair a small smile blossomed on her face.

“We’re home.” She whispered.

“That is the conclusion I reached as well.” Tuvok murmured to her right.

Chakotay laughed softly in her ear.

Whooping and cheering signaled the end of the Fleet Admiral’s introduction. The President would speak next. Then her.

“I spoke to Admiral Paris this morning,” Chakotay murmured. “He’s put a French press backstage.”

Her smile split into a broad grin.

_ ~Fin~ _

 


End file.
